


maybe it's not so bad, so let your hair down now (white knuckles)

by batterwitchofhope



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Bisexuality, Cuddling & Snuggling, Driving, Drugs, Flirting, Ice Cream, Instagram, Kissing, Las Vegas, Making Out, Multi, Piercings, Polyamory, Recreational Drug Use, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed, Snapchat, TRK spoilers, Teenage Rebellion, The Raven King Spoilers, blue smokes weed, glasses gansey, henry's nicknames for blue are fucking adorable, i dont know how geography works, i wanted gansey in a nose ring so sue me, it's only mentioned/discussed it doesn't actually happen on page, they go to vegas?, this is cute and i tried my best, this is gay, trigger tagging just in case that bothers anyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 02:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6884974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batterwitchofhope/pseuds/batterwitchofhope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Your college rebellious phase is descending upon you as we speak,” Henry teases, leaning over in the booth to ruffle Gansey's hair. </p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Gansey quips in return, his voice bright with amusement. “You're not the one coming home for Christmas with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and pierced ears.”</p>
<p>Blue leans across the table to press a lip gloss sticky kiss to his cheek before getting up to throw away their trash. “And to think you were raised Republican."</p>
            </blockquote>





	maybe it's not so bad, so let your hair down now (white knuckles)

**Author's Note:**

> so sarchengsey could take turns punching me in the face and i would thank them, so i wrote a thing. this is mostly just an excuse for blue sargent with a septum piercing because im weak and gay  
> thanks for reading this, i hope you like it! all the drug talk is at the end if that's gonna be an issue for anyone.   
> hmu on tumblr @ leogansey, i was previously jeepsciles. title is from "white knuckles" by OK Go

“Okay, Henry, you’ve officially reached your Gansey nap quota for the day,” Blue says, slinging her duffel down on one of the motel room beds. “The next time he dozes off, it’s gotta be on me.”

The boy in question promptly flops down next to it on the mattress, and he beams a winning smile up at her. “I hate to break this to you, Indigo, but you were the one who called driving privileges for practically the whole afternoon. It’s not my fault you cheated yourself out of cuddling opportunities. In the words of DJ Khaled, congrats, you played yourself.”

Blue rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out at him. Henry has taken to nicknaming her various shades of blue, and she’s been trying her best to ignore how endearing it is. She plops down on the bed next to him, kicking her shoes off. They land with a dull thump in the corner of the room, and she wiggles her toes, legs a bit stiff from five hours of driving in California traffic. It was admittedly a little grueling, but she loves driving, she wouldn’t trade it for anything. 

Except maybe sleepy Gansey privileges. Those are awfully persuasive. 

She buries a hand in Henry’s hair, running her fingers through it idly, and he turns his head to brush a single soft kiss against her wrist. He sticks his tongue out right back at her, except instead of rolling his eyes, he winks. Blue sighs. She’d thought one raven boy was a handful, and here she was with two. C’est la vie.

“I know, but he fell asleep on you twice. Twice, Henry.”

“I am a lucky man, with many earthly wonders bestowed on me. These earthly wonders include five foot nothing of snoozing space heater, and also good hair.”

Gansey picks that precise moment to walk in, and he surveys the two of them with a smile twitching at the corner of his lips and a curious tilt of an eyebrow. 

“Something tells me I’m being squabbled over again.” 

Blue just laughs, and Henry aims finger guns at him. “Right on the money, three.”

Gansey scoffs, toeing off his boat shoes and setting his backpack on the floor next to them, crossing the room to join the two of them on the bed. He sort of looks between the two of them for a minute as he decides precisely how he wants to arrange himself, and in the end he decides to lay his head on Blue’s lap and tangle his legs with Henry’s. 

He closes his eyes, and Blue buries her other hand in his hair. It’s admittedly one of their favorite forms of idle touch, and if she’s started wearing her hair down more since Columbus, that’s not anyone’s business but hers. 

Gansey speaks up a moment later. “Remind me again why you treat me and my affection as the holy grail?”

“Well, we weren’t squabbling over your affection, precisely. Sargeant Cyan over here is jealous of your two-time decision to promote me from boyfriend to human pillow,” Henry says. 

“I am not _jealous_ ,” Blue starts, but Henry just raises an immaculate eyebrow in her general direction, and she cuts herself off. “Okay, fine, I might have been a little jealous. It’s just because it’s really nice to have you doze off on me,” she murmurs, feeling childish insecurity and Henrietta vowels creeping across the sentence. “I know it’s stupid, but it makes me feel protective.” 

“Well,” Gansey starts, opening his eyes and craning his neck a little to look up at her. “I, for one, think that’s bewitchingly lovely.” His eyes crinkle with a smile at the corners, and Blue feels her self-consciousness melt away. “What about you, Henry?”

Henry shifts to lean his forehead against her hip, petting a hand down the curve of Gansey’s spine. “Delightfully darling, indubitably.” 

Gansey laughs, and Blue rolls her eyes, tucking her face against her shoulder to hide her smile. She’s about to reply, something along the lines of _“Oh, stop, you two,”_ or _“Flattery will get you nowhere,”_ or maybe even _“Well now you’re just hitting on me,”_ but then her world is turning and there are hands on her waist and her back is pressed against the mattress and there’s a grinning Gansey hovering over her; dimples and mischief and sunshine. 

Her heart trips. 

“That’s the advantage of being so compact, Turquoise,” Henry murmurs from somewhere behind Gansey. He shifts into her field of vision a moment later, laying at her side, pressing a soft kiss against her cheek. “Maximum opportunities for manhandling.”

She shivers a little, but she keeps her eyes on Gansey’s for a moment longer, her gaze all fire. As disciplined and measured as he’s always been, he’s awfully fun to tease. Then, she trains her attention on Henry, turning to face him. 

“Womanhandling,” she murmurs idly, her gaze falling from his eyes to his lips. “And if height is your excuse, I reckon you could stand to shove Gansey around a little now and then, yeah?”

Gansey makes a choked little sound from somewhere above her. She disregards it. 

“I suppose,” Henry says, entertaining the thought. “Depends whether he'd like it or not, really.”

Blue hums a vague noise of general assent, and then they're kissing, his hand warm against her cheek where he cups her face. 

The whole kissing thing is still novel to her. Eighteen years of thinking that kissing is expressly off-limits and then the ban being lifted all at once will do that to a girl. 

She purrs a soft contented noise into the kiss, and Henry’s hand fits itself neatly to the curve of her waist, or maybe it’s Gansey’s, she can’t tell with her eyes closed. It works its way underneath the cotton of her shirt to rest warm against her side, and she smiles, pulling back from the kiss to breathe, leaning her forehead against Henry’s for a moment. 

“Boys,” she chides, equal parts fascinated and taken aback by how breathless she sounds. “Quit ganging up on me.”

Gansey laughs, ducking down to kiss her neck, and then Blue’s laughing too, squirming and protesting because Gansey’s tickling her sides, and then Henry is kissing her jaw. She has half a mind that it’ll bruise, and she’s about to gently shove him off when he decides that kissing Gansey might be a better plan. She watches the two of them kissing for a moment before averting her eyes.

When they break apart, there's the usual shuffling to get comfortable. They're getting better at not accidentally elbowing each other. Henry lays on his side facing Blue, and Gansey sort of lays down on top of her, slumped half on and half off, his head resting on her chest. 

“Am I crushing you?” he asks, casting a glance up at her to make sure she's comfortable.

“You're fine,” she murmurs, giving him a reassuring smile. 

He returns the favor, pressing a tiny kiss against her collarbone. He wordlessly reaches for Henry’s hand with one of his own, and they lace their fingers together. 

Gansey closes his eyes. He's out in a matter of minutes.

“Looks like you're filling your quota after all, Blue.” Henry breathes against her shoulder, nudging her affectionately. 

“I think you might be right. I should wake him up, though. He's not supposed to sleep in his contacts.”

“You take that sentence back this instant, Aqua. I'm too young to be part of an elderly domestic partnership. That was such an old married person sentence.”

She laughs, turning to press a gentle kiss against his forehead. “Nope. You're in this for the long run, you'll just have to learn to live with it.”

“I swear to everything that's holy, Navy, the second you break out the matching sweaters and Fox news and oatmeal I'm Audi.”

“Please. If Gansey and I ever turn into _that_ kind of old people, just put us out of our misery and save yourself.”

“As you wish,” he says, and Blue can hear the smirk in his voice even with her eyes closed. 

“Did you just princess bride me?” 

“Mhm. I wondered if you'd notice. Gansey called you princess last week in San Fran, that one morning we woke up before you. It was ridiculously charming.”

“He's good at charming,” Blue says, feeling Gansey's breathing even and steady against her chest as he sleeps.

“And we're good at being charmed,” Henry counters, reaching to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. A comfortable silence lapses between them, and Blue feels her eyelids grow heavy.

When she wakes up, her face is buried in someone's hair and the room is upsettingly bright. Someone is whistling. 

She groans and stirs, yawning as she stretches her stiff muscles. Gansey makes a noise of protest and presses back against her, obviously displeased at his heat source threatening to leave. Blue rolls her eyes and settles back down against him, resting her forehead against the back of his neck and wrapping an arm around his waist.

“Why are you even awake,” she mutters blearily in the direction of the whistling. “Come back to bed.”

“You'll have to persuade me, but let the record state I'm tempted. We have to leave in an hour if we want to hit Vegas by dusk.”

Blue grumbles a sleepy noise of assent, and then Henry is sliding back into bed, warm against her back. He slings an arm over her waist easily, holding her close, and she feels anchored on both sides, protected and protective in equal measure. It's a good place to be. 

“I pried Ganseyman off of you and made him take out his contacts after you passed out,” Henry says. 

Gansey thanks him, his voice blurry with sleep. 

Blue's getting used to that sound- Gansey's insomnia hasn't gone away entirely, and she doubts it will anytime soon, but with less to worry about lately, his anxiety has been giving him a break. Trying to transition back to normal sleeping patterns has admittedly been a bit of a clusterfuck, and right now he's catching sleep wherever he can, in bizarre little naps and fits and bursts. Blue can deal with the weird drowsiness if it means seeing his dark circles fade. 

“You're welcome, love,” Henry tosses back, and Blue feels her heart spasm with something like fondness. 

They all lay there together for a while, chitchatting and swapping banter and little compliments and sweet nothings, until Blue feels consciousness making its way through her veins. She pries herself away from her boys, sitting up and rubbing sleep out of her eyes. 

The first picture on Henry's snapchat story for the day is her silhouetted against the sunlight streaming in through the hotel room window, all bedhead and sunlit skin. 

(The second is her laughing and flipping off the camera.)

(The third is Gansey pretending to still be asleep. So is the fourth, except that one features the puppy filter.)

“I'm calling first shower,” she says, ruffling Gansey's hair. “Unless a very sleepy someone cares to join me.” 

That one never fails to get him out of bed.

***

“Are we seriously doing this?” Gansey asks between mouthfuls of In-N-Out.

“I certainly want to,” Henry replies, licking a drop of wayward sauce off his thumb. “I'm in favor of sticking with the plan. Cobalt?”

She doesn't register that Henry is addressing her at first. She's sidetracked scrolling through Instagram, seeing pictures that Gansey and Henry had taken earlier in the week, a few of her own, whatever agricultural shenanigans Ronan and Adam are getting up to. 

Henry repeats himself, and she looks up. 

“Sorry, what was the question? I wasn't really listening, my bad.”

“No worries. Ganseyboy over here may or may not be getting cold feet about our proposed Vegas antics. I defended my all-American right to make bad choices. Help me make a convincing case for youthful tomfoolery.”

Blue laughs, checking the time on her phone as she begins to consolidate all of their trash onto one tray. “I'm with Henry on this one, I think it'll be fun.” She casts a glance up at Gansey, his hazel eyes looking somehow more inviting behind his wireframes. She's beyond adoring of the days where he decides to forego his contacts and wear glasses instead.

He smiles back at her, and she knows they've got him. “You obviously don't have to do it if you don't want to, it's not like we're gonna force you into it or something, it was just an idea,” she clarifies.

He sighs, trying to hold back a grin and failing miserably. “Christ almighty, you two. Fine, fine, I'm in. I'll admit it sounds fun.” 

Henry claps him on the shoulder and Blue gives him a high five. 

“Your college rebellious phase is descending upon you as we speak,” Henry teases, leaning over in the booth to ruffle Gansey's hair. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Gansey quips in return, his voice bright with amusement, right on the edge of a laugh. “You're not the one coming home for Christmas with a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and pierced ears.”

Blue leans across the table to press a lip gloss sticky kiss to his cheek before getting up to throw away their trash. “And to think you were raised Republican. I still maintain that you're gonna look cute with them.”

“Cute is one word for it,” Henry says when she gets back. “Personally speaking, I'd go for dashing, or maybe distractingly sexy.”

Gansey laughs, leaning his head over on Henry's shoulder. “Your faith in my ability to pull off all kinds of questionable fashion choices is reassuring.”

“Personally speaking,” Blue teases, standing up and finding her bag, “The only one pulling off that lime polo is me, later tonight.” 

Henry casts her a glance of joking betrayal. “Teal, you wound me. I thought I had dibs.”

“You can fight for the glorious privilege later. Right now, we need to get moving again. Who's driving?” Gansey levels his gaze at Blue, because Henry doesn't particularly like driving at all, and furthermore, he hates driving stick with a passion.

“I'll drive,” Blue says, tugging a hairtie off of her wrist and pulling her hair back with it. She’s a firm believer in driving with the windows down, and hair just makes that inconvenient. “You guys can fight over shotgun.”

Three rounds of rock paper scissors later, they're piling back into the car, Henry sprawled out across the backseat on his stomach with his Nintendo playing Animal Crossing, Gansey tucked into the passenger seat beside her as he reads.

It's another few hours to Vegas, but so far Nevada highway has proven itself to be desolately beautiful. Blue's dependable dream Pig and the desert’s vast expanses of straight empty pavement were a capable pair. Something about the road here just called to Blue, dared her to go faster and farther, until her Camaro stopped feeling like a car and started feeling like an extension of her soul. She'd never seen highway this vast and empty, and she thought of Ronan as she let her speedometer climb.

The sky above them slowly melts from endless blue into a warm fire-soaked sunset, and it's breathtaking enough to warrant sixty entire seconds on Henry's snapchat story. 

As they near city limits and traffic starts to build, Blue pulls over to let Gansey drive, because as much as she loves driving, big city driving is a separate beast entirely. Her short temper is more of a curse than a blessing when faced with distracted drivers, traffic, unfamiliar turns, cop cars, and people who don't know how to use their blinkers. Gansey has a lifetime of DC driving on his side, and Blue's admittedly getting sort of tired.

She trades Henry for the backseat and watches him lay a hand over Gansey's on the gearshift. If it makes something bloom in her chest that feels as warm and right as the inside of a tree, that's no one's business but her own. 

Henry gives directions to the location they'd chosen at lunch thanks to a numerous amount of positive yelp reviews and promising testimonials. The traffic and the sheer sprawling size of Vegas make the drive a bit of an ordeal, but the Pig is full of quiet kpop and teasing flirty banter, so none of them are particularly bothered. 

///

Blue goes first. 

It's the outcome of a three way rock paper scissors game, but even if she wouldn't have lost, she probably still would have gone first. 

She dimly remembers getting her earlobes pierced in middle school, and she doesn't remember the pain as anything significant, but her face is another prospect altogether. 

She's survived things worse than pain, though. She'll live. 

Henry gives her hand a reassuring squeeze as the woman fusses with antiseptic at a nearby table. Gansey stands behind Blue's chair, a hand resting comfortably on her shoulder. If the employee was confused by the sight of the three of them touching, she had the good sense not to say anything, which Blue was grateful for. Maybe she knows a poly couple. Maybe she is poly. Maybe she didn't think anything of it. Or maybe she's just seen weirder sights- this is Vegas, after all.

It's over quickly, and Blue got through it with just a quiet, bitten off swear. 

“Not too bad after all,” she says, turning to grin up at Gansey. He doesn't exactly look convinced.

“Yeah, it's not too bad. You want me to do your ears next, or do you need a breather?” the employee asks. She's very pretty, with dark skin and neon pink hair and a mesmerizing smile. Kelsie, according to her name tag. 

“Yes please,” Blue answers, resisting the urge to touch her face. They'd gone over the details when they arrived, and they'd picked out their jewelry and whatnot. 

“Alright. You wanted the tragus on the left and two helixes on the right, yeah?”

Blue nods, and turns to Henry as Kelsie prepares her ears.

“How do I look?” she asks, flashing him a grin. 

“Badass, but that's not exactly a new development.” She laughs, and leans over just slightly to kiss his cheek. 

“It looks good, Jane,” Gansey offers, but his voice sounds faraway, and when Blue turns to look, his eyes are trained on Kelsie’s hands and there's visible worry sketched on his face.

Blue waits a moment until Kelsie steps back to look over her handiwork, and then she softens her voice. “Earth to Gansey. I'm fine, you can relax.”

His eyes meet hers, and he sighs, offering her a sheepish smile as he anxiously scrubs a hand through his hair.   
“Sorry, Jane.”

“It's fine. I'm serious though, if you're having second thoughts and you don't want to, you don't have to.”

Henry seconds that sentiment. “We're not going to force you, Ganseyman.”

Gansey smiles at them, and it's not his presidential frosted glass smile, so Blue knows everything's alright.“No, it's not that, I want to, just. Can you go first?”

“Sure thing, three.”

Henry takes Blue’s place in the chair, and she takes his hand in hers again. Her nails are painted lime, and they look nice against his skin. 

“You ready?” Kelsie asks a moment later, and Henry just offers her a winning smile. 

“That depends, am I allowed to be vulgar?”

Kelsie laughs, raising an eyebrow. “Go ahead, man, whatever helps you.”

“Excellent. In that case, just fuck me up.”

They all laugh, and it lightens the mood considerably. They can always count on Henry to break any uncomfortable tension. It's something he's good at, and it's a remarkably good skill to have in a relationship. 

Henry grips her hand tightly as Kelsie finishes up and moves on to his ears- lobes, two helixes on one ear and one on the other. When Blue sneaks a glance up at Gansey, he looks visibly more relaxed, his hand gently rubbing Henry's shoulder in an easy, comfortable way that makes something thrill in Blue's heart.

“How do you feel?” Gansey asks. 

“Like I want to get out of here and explore the wonders that this moral cesspool of a city has to offer,” he quips back easily, turning to Kelsie as she busies herself removing the studs Gansey had chosen from the locked jewelry cabinet. “Are there any ice cream shops worth mentioning?”

Kelsie disinfects the earrings, considering his question as Henry and Gansey trade places. “There’s a few nearby, but if you have a car and don't mind the tourist trap prices, the one outside of Caesar's Palace is incredible.”

“Noted.”

Blue rolls her eyes at Henry, who's standing behind Gansey's chair fussing with his hair. Gansey doesn't seem to be bothered by it, but Blue brings his hand up to her mouth and kisses the back of it gently as reassurance just in case. He looks over at her, and she pokes his cheek right where his dimples appear. Sure enough, he gives her an amused grin, dimples and all. 

“Henry, you're ridiculous, but ice cream sounds good to me. Gansey, you sure about this?” 

“Sure as sugar,” he answers. “I think I've sufficiently defied the conventions of my upbringing enough as is, might as well finish the job.” 

Blue snorts a laugh. “Not if you keep talking like that you won't, Gatsby.”

He rolls his eyes at her, but there's fondness in his expression, and Henry settles his hands on Gansey's shoulders. “Please, he's hardly Gatsby. He passes out at parties.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Gansey mutters, but here's trying to hold back a smirk. “You try staying conscious through all five hours of one of my mother's parties without getting tipsy.” 

“Jesus. That bad?” Blue asks, and Gansey winces as Kelsie takes the plunge and does his first ear before quickly following with the second.

“They're something, all right.” 

“You'll have to bring us to one someday,” Henry says, but Gansey visibly stiffens at the thought, so he quickly backtracks. “Uh, or not, not is definitely a tempting option.” 

Gansey sighs as Kelsie swipes the antiseptic pad over his skin. “I will someday, but that's a conversation for another time.” 

Blue nods, resting her forehead on his shoulder. “That's fine. We understand.”

Kelsie clears her throat a little, tapping Gansey's nose gently. “You ready? I know this is the one you were nervous about.”

Gansey takes a deep breath before grinning. “Ready as I'll ever be, miss. Do your worst.”

Kelsie laughs.

///

“You look like someone who does drugs, is all,” Gansey laughs between spoonfuls of mint ice cream. “Like, someone who smokes or something. I’m sorry, you look pretty and I like it and everything, I just can’t get the image out of my head now that you have the whole septum piercing thing. I know it’s ridiculous, but you do. I just think it’s funny.”

Blue scoffs, looking between him and Henry, gesturing towards Gansey with her spoon. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Gansey cocks his head a little, peering at her confusedly through his glasses. “Beg pardon? I was joking, I wasn’t trying to offend you or anything.”

Blue locks eyes with Henry and she can’t help it, she just starts giggling. “He doesn’t know, does he? Oh my god.”

Henry steals a spoonful of her pistachio ice cream, and he’s laughing right along with her. “I think you might be right, my wine-dark sea.”

Blue frowns at him. “Your what now?”

Henry shrugs and explains. “Greek word for blue, they named the color after Athena’s eyes. Running out of shades here, periwinkle.”

She blinks at him for a moment before grinning, and she turns back to Gansey. “Alright, I’ll deal with him being cute later. Gansey, do you seriously not know?”

Gansey feigns exasperation, setting his spoon down in order to talk with his hands. He’s one for gesturing. “Not know what? Jane, am I missing something?”

Blue just laughs and steals a couple spoonfuls from his bowl. “Gansey, good god. I look like I smoke because I do smoke. Is this seriously news to you?”

Gansey just stares at her with an expression that’s equal parts awestruck and horrified. He turns to look at Henry. “I...you...she what? You knew about this?”

Henry raises an immaculate eyebrow at him and leans in to wipe a smudge of ice cream off Gansey’s lower lip. He then licks it off of his thumb. “Her family is an assemblage of witches, Ganseyman. It’s not exactly surprising. Or revolutionary, for that matter- I’ve had a joint or two in my time.”

“Psychics,” Blue interjects, swatting Henry’s arm affectionately. “And god, you two make it sound so...country club. But other than that, yeah. It’s not like a frequent thing or a constant habit or something. I just _have_ , is all. Like, I dunno, once or twice monthly maybe. It’s not a huge deal or whatever.”

Gansey’s expression is that of someone who just got news of the president’s assassination. “Are you trying to tell me that your casual marijuana habit is not concerning?”

Even Henry busts up laughing this time. “Gansey, I’m pretty sure you’re required to call it weed now that you have a nose ring.”

“Oh, definitely,” Blue replies, reaching across the table to hold Henry’s hand. “I kind of want to get him high. If he's down, obviously. He might be fun.”

“That he might, Azure. You might be onto something there.”

Gansey groans and lays his face down on the table. “You two are incorrigible. Christ.”

Blue sticks out a hand to ruffle his hair affectionately. “Yeah, but we’re yours.”

///

(Henry’s the one who insists on triad selfies for Instagram against a backdrop of marble statues washed with neon light. Gansey is blushing at Blue and Henry’s dirty jokes, Henry is sticking his tongue out, and Blue’s halfway to a laugh. It’s a moment captured, and he’s almost reluctant to post it, to share something that precious.

Ronan’s four disbelieving comments asking _what the literal fuck is on gansey’s face you hooligans_ are absolutely, 100% worth it.)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading this!!!! i was so scared abt the characterization in this, but hopefully it came out okay. let me know what you thought or hmu on tumblr @ leogansey, i was previously jeepsciles. 
> 
> (for anyone wondering: blue and henry both got some ear piercings, henry has a tongue stud, blue has a septum, gansey has a tiny gay nose ring like troye sivan and also pierced ears. im not a professional piercer or whatever so idk what im doing, sorry if anything's like atrociously wrong)


End file.
